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La Güera Rodríguez

View more insights in Arts and Humanities - History - History of North America and the United States - Women's & Gender History

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In La Güera Rodríguez, Silvia Marina Arrom approaches the legends of Rodríguez de Velasco with a keen eye, seeking to disentangle the woman from the myth.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 1, 2024

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This video video discusses the life and legacy of Marie Ignacia Rodriguez de Velasco, also known as Laira Rodriguez, a notable Mexican woman from the late colonial period through the early Mexican Republic. Born in 1778 and living until 1850, Laira was known for her beauty, wit, and vibrant social presence, but she was also involved in political intrigue and several legal disputes, leaving a substantial historical record.

The author explores how Laira evolved from a historical figure into a mythologized character over the centuries, her story being sensationalized in various forms of culture such as novels, plays, and films. Initially seen as a lively party figure, she later became a controversial icon framed as a heroine of independence and a feminist. However, much of this portrayal is based on inaccuracies.

The author conducted research to create a scholarly biography, uncovering truths about her life that contradict her sensationalized image. The biography consists of two parts: one detailing her actual life and the second addressing her posthumous representation. By examining how her story has been shaped by different narratives through time, the author highlights the ways myths can distort historical truths.

The analysis underscores the complexity of women's roles during her time and critiques the tendency to exaggerate or trivialize experiences related to gender. It reflects on broader themes of how historical narratives can be constructed, manipulated, and mythologized, stressing the importance of separating fact from fiction in both history and contemporary discourse.

Ultimately, the text serves as a reminder to critically evaluate the sources and motivations behind historical narratives, as they can often reflect contemporary values and biases rather than an accurate account of the past.

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Here are some articles that are similar in theme and content to the video you about Marie Ignacia Rodriguez de Velasco:

1. **"Revisiting Historical Figures: Myths and Realities of Women's Lives in 19th Century Mexico"** - This article explores various female figures in 19th-century Mexico, examining how their lives have been mythologized over time and what the historical truths reveal about gender roles and societal expectations.

2. **"The Construction of Feminine Identity in Colonial Latin America"** - This comprehensive analysis delves into the ways women were portrayed in colonial literature and art, comparing these representations to real-life experiences, and how these depictions have influenced modern perceptions of women's roles in history.

3. **"From Historical Figures to Cultural Icons: The Evolution of Women in Mexican History"** - This piece focuses on several women throughout Mexican history who, like Laira Rodriguez, have transitioned from being recognized solely for their historical contributions to becoming symbols of broader cultural movements, including feminism and national identity.

4. **"Gender and Myth in Latin American History"** - The article discusses the ways gender has been constructed through myths and narratives in Latin American history, showcasing how these stories can obscure real experiences of women and complicate our understanding of historical events.

5. **"Stereotypes and Real Lives: Women in the Age of Independence"** - This investigation analyzes the lives of women during the Mexican War of Independence, pointing out the discrepancies between their actual contributions and the romanticized stories that have emerged, similar to the case of Laira Rodriguez.

6. **"The Role of Women in the Formation of National Identities in 19th Century Latin America"** - Focusing on how women's roles were constructed in national narratives, this article critically evaluates the impact of these narratives on modern understandings of history and identity, drawing parallels with mythologized figures like Laira.

7. **"Historical Revisionism: Addressing Gender Bias in Popular Narratives"** - This scholarly article reflects on the importance of revising historical narratives that have been traditionally overlooked or misrepresented, especially in the convideo of women, using various case studies including Laira Rodriguez.

These articles collectively examine the intersection of gender, history, and myth-making, particularly related to the portrayal of women's lives in historical convideos.

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Marie Ignacia Rodriguez de Velasco is one

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of Mexico's most fascinating

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and controversial women known to history simply

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by her nickname Laira Rodriguez, which means the Blonde

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or Fair Rodriguez, which she was by all accounts,

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she was beautiful, witty.

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The life of the party, knew everyone, including famous men

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and foreign travelers who wrote about her, fortunately

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for me, and was deeply engaged in civic life.

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In fact, at one point she was banished from Mexico City

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for her role in a political intrigue,

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and she was also involved in several messy lawsuits.

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So she left a rich paper trail that allowed me

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to piece together her life story from her birth in 1778

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until her death in 1850, a very long life of the time,

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71 years that spanned the late colonial period,

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the independence period, the wars of 1810 to 21

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and the first quarter century

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of the very turbulent Mexican republic.

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Now, her story doesn't stop there in the

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20th and 21st century.

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She's been remembered in historical chronicles

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and also in popular culture in really entertaining novels,

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plays, comic books, a movie, an opera, a Dylan novella,

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and many blogs

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that gradually made her a much more important glamorous

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and racy figure than she actually was,

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because she came to be considered,

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a major independence heroine

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and a promiscuous rebel

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who was a feminist ahead of her time.

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Not true it turns out,

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but that's the Guer Rodriguez

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that's become an icon of Mexican history.

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So I became really intrigued

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by her journey from history to myth.

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So I wrote a two part book.

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The first part is about her life.

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The second part is her afterlife,

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where I analyze the way she's been depicted.

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I discovered falsehoods determine when they appeared,

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why they appeared, and why people chose to believe them.

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Now, it's interesting that despite the fact

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that she's a much loved figure in Mexican culture,

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she was never the subject of a scholarly biography

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until I wrote my book.

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Yet the material is there if you're willing

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to do the legwork in Mexican archives

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and dusty rare book libraries

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that unfortunately haven't yet been digitized.

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But I never found her personal papers a huge disappointment.

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But it's amazing how much you can learn from court cases,

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notarial records, municipal census, censuses,

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newspapers and the like.

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They're full of surprises.

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I even found some of her personal letters

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tucked into long judicial files

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that shed some light on her emotions and ideas

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and showed that she wrote well

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and knew how to craft very persuasive arguments.

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But I couldn't stop there,

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at just piecing together her life story

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because the myths were always there.

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Even when I was writing her biography for one thing, I had

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to constantly fight them so they wouldn't color the way

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that I interpreted my documents.

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And I had to confront them directly so that the reader

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who was familiar always with them,

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if they're reading my book,

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wouldn't continue believing them.

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Because after all, who doesn't wanna believe that in Mexico,

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two centuries ago, there was a woman so beautiful

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that men fell for her left and right.

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So sexually liberated that she had affairs

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with a young Simon believe out of the future liberator

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of South America, who indeed went to Mexico City

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for one week when he was 16 years old

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with Alexander Humboldt, the Prussian scientist

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who visited Mexico City in 1803.

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And with I, the man

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who finally brought about Mexican independence in 1821,

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a woman so patriotic

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that she was instrumental in helping the rebel cause

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and so intelligent that she was the power behind the throne

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and the author of the Blondie

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that ushered in Mexican independence.

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Well, none of that's true actually,

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but these stories are so attractive

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and persistent that my biography couldn't just start

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with her birth and end with her death.

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I had to analyze the fables systematically,

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and these myths gave me a research methodology.

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I worked from front to back, starting with modern depictions

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to create a series of hypotheses that I could test.

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So my method was not to believe anything

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unless I could corroborate it with

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documents from her time period.

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And indeed, I didn't find any evidence for the myths

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that I just listed, and I found,

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much information that disproved them.

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And then my second step in fact checking was to see

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what evidence each modern author might have

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had for various claims.

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So I put all her representations in chronological order

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to see what each author could have read

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or known at any given time and what he

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or she added for the first time, occasionally on the basis

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of new documents that had recently come to light,

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but more often without any documentary basis whatsoever.

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And as an additional check on whether I should believe their

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stories or not, I tried

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to understand why they might have invented certain facts

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about her life to strengthen the stories

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that they wanted to tell about the past.

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In other words, why would various authors want

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to portray her in a certain way at a given time,

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depending on the historical context and their ideology?

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So what can we learn by fleshing out the real woman

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who lived some two centuries ago?

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For one thing, we have very few biographies

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of any Mexican woman for any time period.

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So it's a contribution to women's history.

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We also have very few social histories for this period

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because our studies tend to emphasize

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the dramatic political events of the day.

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But there's a lot to be learned

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by studying an individual life, both about small details

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and about the large processes of the time, such

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as the independence movement and,

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and how they affected real people.

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And let me give you a few examples.

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We have very few studies

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of Mexican women in this time period,

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but lots of stereotypes that emphasize their,

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marginalization and victimization.

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While Lao's biography challenges some of these, it's true

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that she faced limitations because she was a woman.

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She couldn't go to the university,

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or whole public office, for example.

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But that didn't stop her or her daughters.

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Uh, from being very well educated

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and participating in civic affairs, a common misconception

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is that Mexican women had the same legal status as minors

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and they were subject to lifelong guardianship.

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Well, it's not true when you study the law

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or see her life story.

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She didn't return to her father's control when she was

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widowed twice at the age of 26

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and 28 during the many years until she married.

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For the third time, she lived on her own, had full control

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of her property, and her children had a very active

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and what must have been a pretty satisfying social life.

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And it's clear that she knew how to defend herself

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and she knew how to protect her family's interests

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because she had many resources at her disposal.

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Pierre Bour dire, the French sociologist proposed

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that there's several types of capital,

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and she had all of 'em, economic capital,

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which she had in the form of rural properties, money,

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jewelry, cultural capital, which she had in the form

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of education, familiarity with the law

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and knowhow about how the society worked.

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Social capital, basically who you know,

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she had a very extensive social network

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and she spent considerable effort sustaining it.

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Um, and she could mobilize it when needed.

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And this is worth elaborating on

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because social networks don't often appear in

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historical narratives.

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She had a whole network of people

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who lent her money when she fell on hard times.

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And when she was flushed, she lent ven money

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'cause these relations were reciprocal.

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An example of how she used her social networks comes from

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1816 when a merchant sued her for not paying a debt.

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Well, it's clear that she owed him money,

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but she used her connections with the judges of the cia,

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the high court to get them to cancel the debt.

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Not a nice thing to do, but she got away with it.

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And another example of how she dealt

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with adversity comes from 1802

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and involves a scandalous conflict with her first husband

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who was extremely jealous, violent, and abusive.

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She was definitely a battered wife.

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Now first he turned to priests to restrain him.

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What Steve Stern has called the pluralization of patriarchs,

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you use one male figure to counter another.

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But when he tried to kill her by firing his pistol in a fit

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of rage, it fortunately didn't go off.

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She went straight to the top, to the Viceroy

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who put him under house arrest, and she

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and her children left and moved in with a favorite uncle.

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When her husband was released, he sued, he retaliated

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by filing for an ecclesiastical divorce on the

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grounds of adultery.

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Now, divorce didn't exist in Mexico at the time,

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so this would've been a church authorized separation.

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Well, LA Hua didn't take that lying down.

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She got excellent defense lawyers

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and leading citizens to testify in her behalf.

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And a few months later, her husband dropped the suit

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because he couldn't prove anything and they reunited

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and had another child.

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Now, whether she went back to him

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because of the stigma attached to,

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a formal separation or because she loved him, we don't know.

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But evidently, she knew how to use the law

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and her social networks to her advantage.

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And over and over again,

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she showed remarkable resourcefulness and resilience.

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She was hardly a defensive, defenseless,

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shrinking violet.

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Let me give you an example of

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how her life helps us understand larger issues

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of political and economic history.

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The standard narratives

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of Mexican history portrayed the independence movement

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as a glorious process

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where all the good guys supported independence from the

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start, 1810, and where everything was better

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after Mexico achieved nationhood in 1821.

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But her experience was much more complicated.

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She didn't support Independences at first

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until quite late in the game.

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In fact, instead she was part of the Creole group that

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after Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808

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wanted local self-government,

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but always as a part of greater Spain,

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something like Canada, within the British Commonwealth.

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And this is what motivated the intrigue

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that got her in trouble in 1809 when she tried

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to undermine the rival faction who oppose this plan.

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And she was banished from Mexico City for two months,

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according to the authorities as a warning to the powerful

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s for spreading rumors that agitated

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blo the people and threatened to disturb public order.

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So authorities recognized

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that she exerted some political influence through the gift

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of Gab, which was one of her great talents evidently,

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and that this influence went beyond her social circle.

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But it's important to note

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that the intrigue wasn't in support of Mexican independence.

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In fact, it occurred a full year

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before the Igo revolt broke out.

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It had nothing to do with it,

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although later narrators changed the date

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of her banishment made it after the algo revolt rather than

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before, and used this incident to claim

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that she was an independent heroine.

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But on the contrary,

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after she returned to Mexico City in 1810,

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she avoided doing anything

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that could result in another punishment.

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She didn't support the rebels.

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In fact, I found a letter in

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which she called them the enemy.

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And it's true that at one point she gave the insurgent some

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money because they had occupied her CIE

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and were requiring payment in order to protect them.

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But it wasn't a voluntary

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contribution, and it was quite small.

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So she doesn't deserve

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to be considered an independence heroin.

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In fact, this was a very difficult time for her, a time

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of crisis and uncertainty, which she navigated by trying

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to stay friendly with people on all sides

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of the political spectrum and working

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to protect her family's patrimony above all else.

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It was also a difficult time

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because the wars brought her economic hardship.

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When the rebels occupied her most valuable properties,

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she lost her main source of income.

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And after independence, though, she got the properties back.

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They were in such disrepair

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that she had to sell them for pittance.

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And she struggled to maintain her standard of living

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and experience that complicates that triumphal

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official narrative and wasn't the story

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that future generations would want to tell.

13:23.105 --> 13:25.245
Now, turning to the stories

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that they did tell historical memory, I think her life was

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so interesting that it didn't need to be fictionalized.

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But over time, it was, and she stray further

13:36.105 --> 13:37.845
and further away from the real woman

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who lived two centuries ago.

13:40.185 --> 13:42.965
And let me give you a few versions of Laira

13:42.965 --> 13:44.485
that appeared long after her death.

13:45.125 --> 13:48.515
First, at the beginning of the 20th century, one

13:48.515 --> 13:52.285
of her descendants wrote three books about his distinguished

13:52.285 --> 13:53.685
family and included her

13:53.945 --> 13:56.765
as a beautiful vivacious enc chanting,

13:56.865 --> 14:00.245
but very proper lady in his telling.

14:00.465 --> 14:03.525
She hosted soiree that gathered the luminaries of the day,

14:03.945 --> 14:05.885
but she never influenced historical events

14:05.885 --> 14:08.285
because that wasn't considered appropriate

14:08.285 --> 14:09.965
for women when he was writing.

14:10.185 --> 14:12.805
And of course, she never had affairs with anyone

14:13.145 --> 14:17.045
or was involved in marital conflicts, but she was very rich,

14:17.485 --> 14:19.205
although we know that she really wasn't as wealthy

14:19.265 --> 14:21.565
as he said, her properties were mortgaged to the hilt

14:22.025 --> 14:23.845
and she often struggled to make ends meet.

14:24.505 --> 14:29.185
So he was using her to glorify his family history,

14:29.495 --> 14:32.625
leaving out what wasn't, going to help this story

14:32.845 --> 14:35.105
and embellishing it quite a bit.

14:36.355 --> 14:38.015
Now, by the middle of the 20th century,

14:38.695 --> 14:40.055
attitudes toward women were changing.

14:40.475 --> 14:42.535
It was okay for women to be involved in politics.

14:44.755 --> 14:47.095
And so in 1949, art

14:48.445 --> 14:51.965
published a historical novel entirely about her title La

14:52.195 --> 14:54.255
Rodriguez, that made her famous

14:54.395 --> 14:56.255
and created most of the myths

14:56.255 --> 14:58.575
that have since been repeated over and over again.

14:59.685 --> 15:03.135
It's a beautifully written, sometimes raunchy novel

15:03.205 --> 15:04.495
that became a bestseller,

15:04.995 --> 15:09.255
and it emphasized her supposed romantic liaisons,

15:09.255 --> 15:10.695
and her political activities.

15:11.595 --> 15:15.215
Now, tifi did include some references to documents

15:15.215 --> 15:17.735
that he had read because he dabbled in historical research,

15:18.315 --> 15:19.415
but most of it was fantasy.

15:21.935 --> 15:23.715
Why did he make up so much of her story?

15:24.895 --> 15:26.875
For one thing, he had so few facts about her

15:27.345 --> 15:29.275
that he filled in the gaps with his imagination.

15:31.705 --> 15:36.365
And, theta that he invented served his lifelong project

15:36.865 --> 15:38.325
of instilling national pride.

15:39.065 --> 15:40.885
He gave Mexico the most beautiful

15:41.025 --> 15:43.365
and brilliant woman in the Americas, as he put it.

15:43.985 --> 15:45.765
And he used her as the central figure

15:46.425 --> 15:48.445
to tell the very complicated

15:48.445 --> 15:51.565
and sometimes stuffy to story,

15:51.625 --> 15:54.565
of the independence period in an entertaining way

15:55.145 --> 15:57.005
to a newly expanded reading public

15:58.215 --> 16:00.955
at a time when Mexico was proudly modernizing.

16:01.615 --> 16:03.795
His exemplary patriot was a modern woman

16:04.455 --> 16:08.705
who defied social norms while she pursued happiness

16:08.705 --> 16:10.585
for herself and independence for the nation.

16:12.835 --> 16:16.495
Yet this was 1949, and by then SBE was an old man

16:16.495 --> 16:20.215
and he wasn't really comfortable with a power, autonomy

16:20.635 --> 16:24.415
and, unbridled sexuality of his protagonist.

16:24.595 --> 16:29.135
So his wayer exerted influence from behind the scenes

16:29.635 --> 16:31.615
by manipulating the men who made history.

16:32.195 --> 16:35.845
In fact, her politics were presented as an extension

16:35.905 --> 16:39.205
of her love life, and he gave his book a traditional ending.

16:39.595 --> 16:41.085
Once independence was achieved,

16:42.015 --> 16:45.155
she married her third husband who tamed her flame,

16:45.775 --> 16:48.795
and she ended her days as a proper woman should

16:49.735 --> 16:50.945
devoted to home and church.

16:52.155 --> 16:54.935
So his did not represent female liberation

16:55.075 --> 16:56.415
or threatened patriarchy.

16:57.475 --> 16:59.735
But that would change with the advent

16:59.735 --> 17:02.055
of the feminist movement in Mexico in the 1970s

17:02.595 --> 17:05.855
as a new generation searched the past for women

17:05.875 --> 17:09.375
who made history, they found Lata mostly by reading,

17:09.375 --> 17:13.535
by Yeti's book, which many people thought was a real,

17:13.895 --> 17:15.135
a reliable biography.

17:16.195 --> 17:19.215
And in retelling her story, they dropped the last part

17:19.215 --> 17:20.895
where she turned to domesticity and faith

17:21.595 --> 17:25.455
and instead emphasized her alleged glamor, sensuality,

17:25.805 --> 17:29.175
bravery, rebelliousness, political commitment, and so on.

17:30.365 --> 17:34.295
And new falsehoods began to emerge and then get repeated.

17:34.395 --> 17:36.895
For example, now she left her first husband for good

17:37.165 --> 17:39.855
because a strong independent woman would never return

17:40.355 --> 17:42.335
to such a jealous and abusive man, right?

17:43.255 --> 17:47.535
Wrong. And some authors used her

17:47.555 --> 17:49.245
to criticize Mexican sexism.

17:49.425 --> 17:53.125
So a 2005 novel makes her a wise woman

17:53.585 --> 17:56.885
who constantly offers the protagonist excellent advice.

17:58.025 --> 17:59.685
But the author states

17:59.795 --> 18:03.125
that Mexico would have had a much happier history if she had

18:03.125 --> 18:05.485
been in charge instead of being forced to operate

18:05.485 --> 18:07.205
through incompetent men.

18:07.985 --> 18:11.245
As he put it, Mexico would've been better off if he threw be

18:11.245 --> 18:12.805
they had been the woman and she the man.

18:14.385 --> 18:17.365
So in this text, she never became the heroine.

18:17.365 --> 18:20.485
Mexico needed because of the sexism that constrained her.

18:21.065 --> 18:24.525
Of course, other texts did make her one

18:24.525 --> 18:26.445
of the leading heroines of the independent struggle,

18:27.105 --> 18:29.925
the most politically powerful woman in the entire history

18:29.925 --> 18:33.245
of Mexico, according to one, really.

18:35.225 --> 18:38.485
So in tracing her journey from obscurity to fame,

18:39.675 --> 18:42.775
we can see her change from a proper aristocratic lady

18:43.515 --> 18:45.275
to a naughty patriot.

18:45.745 --> 18:49.875
Finally, tam by a man to a wise woman,

18:50.395 --> 18:53.755
a feminist, and a fully liberated political actor.

18:55.725 --> 18:58.545
Yet she never lost her reputation as a fem fatal.

18:59.435 --> 19:01.535
One blog even described her as one

19:01.535 --> 19:02.935
of the most famous prostitutes in history.

19:03.795 --> 19:06.415
But whether they celebrated her sexuality

19:06.715 --> 19:09.975
or condemned it, all these narratives sexualized her,

19:09.975 --> 19:12.655
which is a very common way that women are represented

19:12.995 --> 19:15.175
or misrepresented in history.

19:18.035 --> 19:20.135
So what lessons can we draw from this study?

19:21.545 --> 19:23.475
Well, like what does afterlife clearly shows

19:23.475 --> 19:25.835
that historical memory is not the same as history.

19:27.305 --> 19:29.915
Over time, the stories that began as rumor

19:30.055 --> 19:32.795
or fictional anecdotes became accepted fact.

19:34.785 --> 19:37.725
And then as now, the more sensational the falsehood,

19:38.025 --> 19:40.525
the faster and farther it spread, especially

19:41.065 --> 19:43.805
if it confirmed the public's gendered stereotypes

19:44.885 --> 19:46.785
or fueled their fantasies

19:47.805 --> 19:49.945
and fit into the stories that they wanted

19:50.045 --> 19:51.665
to tell about the past.

19:53.045 --> 19:55.345
So they created the RA that they would have liked

19:55.345 --> 19:57.065
to have lived in the past.

19:58.095 --> 20:01.275
In other words, these falsehoods get repeated

20:01.275 --> 20:03.115
because people want to believe them.

20:03.835 --> 20:05.955
A problem that we see in social media today

20:06.625 --> 20:09.595
when fake facts spread with even more astonishing speed,

20:10.985 --> 20:12.365
Lara's journey also shows

20:12.875 --> 20:15.645
that historical memory is never definitive and final

20:16.075 --> 20:19.165
because the stories we tell about the past are constantly

20:19.165 --> 20:21.005
being reworked to fit the present,

20:21.855 --> 20:24.325
reflecting our changing ideas about gender

20:24.345 --> 20:25.605
and politics and nation.

20:28.155 --> 20:30.975
And finally analyzing her journey from history to myth

20:31.885 --> 20:35.175
reminds us that we need to evaluate historical narratives

20:35.275 --> 20:36.415
or anything else we read

20:36.435 --> 20:39.255
or see on YouTube to separate fact from fiction.

20:40.065 --> 20:44.205
We need to ask who created text when on the basis of

20:44.205 --> 20:46.765
what sources for what purpose and how

20:46.765 --> 20:47.990
Could this shape their presentation?

20:48.825 --> 20:51.275
Otherwise, we're a fair game for being taken in

20:51.275 --> 20:53.155
by false facts and apocryphal stories,

20:54.165 --> 20:57.225
and we historians have to be careful not to let our wishes

20:57.805 --> 21:00.665
and fantasies distort what we see in the past.

00:00 - Marie Ignacia Rodriguez de Velasco is one of Mexico's most fascinating and controversial women known to history simply by her nickname Laira Rodriguez, which means the Blonde or Fair Rodriguez, which she was by all accounts, she was beautiful, witty.

00:16 - The life of the party, knew everyone, including famous men and foreign travelers who wrote about her, fortunately for me, and was deeply engaged in civic life. In fact, at one point she was banished from Mexico City for her role in a political intrigue, and she was also involved in several messy lawsuits. So she left a rich paper trail that allowed me to piece together her life story from her birth in 1778 until her death in 1850, a very long life of the time, 71 years that spanned the late colonial period,

00:49 - the independence period, the wars of 1810 to 21 and the first quarter century of the very turbulent Mexican republic. Now, her story doesn't stop there in the 20th and 21st century. She's been remembered in historical chronicles and also in popular culture in really entertaining novels, plays, comic books, a movie, an opera, a Dylan novella, and many blogs that gradually made her a much more important glamorous

01:22 - and racy figure than she actually was, because she came to be considered, a major independence heroine and a promiscuous rebel who was a feminist ahead of her time. Not true it turns out, but that's the Guer Rodriguez that's become an icon of Mexican history. So I became really intrigued by her journey from history to myth.

01:47 - So I wrote a two part book. The first part is about her life. The second part is her afterlife, where I analyze the way she's been depicted. I discovered falsehoods determine when they appeared, why they appeared, and why people chose to believe them. Now, it's interesting that despite the fact that she's a much loved figure in Mexican culture, she was never the subject of a scholarly biography until I wrote my book.

02:14 - Yet the material is there if you're willing to do the legwork in Mexican archives and dusty rare book libraries that unfortunately haven't yet been digitized. But I never found her personal papers a huge disappointment. But it's amazing how much you can learn from court cases, notarial records, municipal census, censuses, newspapers and the like. They're full of surprises. I even found some of her personal letters

02:42 - tucked into long judicial files that shed some light on her emotions and ideas and showed that she wrote well and knew how to craft very persuasive arguments. But I couldn't stop there, at just piecing together her life story because the myths were always there. Even when I was writing her biography for one thing, I had to constantly fight them so they wouldn't color the way that I interpreted my documents.

03:11 - And I had to confront them directly so that the reader who was familiar always with them, if they're reading my book, wouldn't continue believing them. Because after all, who doesn't wanna believe that in Mexico, two centuries ago, there was a woman so beautiful that men fell for her left and right. So sexually liberated that she had affairs with a young Simon believe out of the future liberator of South America, who indeed went to Mexico City

03:37 - for one week when he was 16 years old with Alexander Humboldt, the Prussian scientist who visited Mexico City in 1803. And with I, the man who finally brought about Mexican independence in 1821, a woman so patriotic that she was instrumental in helping the rebel cause and so intelligent that she was the power behind the throne and the author of the Blondie that ushered in Mexican independence.

04:04 - Well, none of that's true actually, but these stories are so attractive and persistent that my biography couldn't just start with her birth and end with her death. I had to analyze the fables systematically, and these myths gave me a research methodology. I worked from front to back, starting with modern depictions to create a series of hypotheses that I could test. So my method was not to believe anything unless I could corroborate it with

04:33 - documents from her time period. And indeed, I didn't find any evidence for the myths that I just listed, and I found, much information that disproved them. And then my second step in fact checking was to see what evidence each modern author might have had for various claims. So I put all her representations in chronological order to see what each author could have read or known at any given time and what he

05:01 - or she added for the first time, occasionally on the basis of new documents that had recently come to light, but more often without any documentary basis whatsoever. And as an additional check on whether I should believe their stories or not, I tried to understand why they might have invented certain facts about her life to strengthen the stories that they wanted to tell about the past. In other words, why would various authors want to portray her in a certain way at a given time,

05:30 - depending on the historical context and their ideology? So what can we learn by fleshing out the real woman who lived some two centuries ago? For one thing, we have very few biographies of any Mexican woman for any time period. So it's a contribution to women's history. We also have very few social histories for this period because our studies tend to emphasize the dramatic political events of the day. But there's a lot to be learned

06:00 - by studying an individual life, both about small details and about the large processes of the time, such as the independence movement and, and how they affected real people. And let me give you a few examples. We have very few studies of Mexican women in this time period, but lots of stereotypes that emphasize their, marginalization and victimization. While Lao's biography challenges some of these, it's true

06:28 - that she faced limitations because she was a woman. She couldn't go to the university, or whole public office, for example. But that didn't stop her or her daughters. from being very well educated and participating in civic affairs, a common misconception is that Mexican women had the same legal status as minors and they were subject to lifelong guardianship. Well, it's not true when you study the law or see her life story.

06:56 - She didn't return to her father's control when she was widowed twice at the age of 26 and 28 during the many years until she married. For the third time, she lived on her own, had full control of her property, and her children had a very active and what must have been a pretty satisfying social life. And it's clear that she knew how to defend herself and she knew how to protect her family's interests because she had many resources at her disposal. Pierre Bour dire, the French sociologist proposed

07:27 - that there's several types of capital, and she had all of 'em, economic capital, which she had in the form of rural properties, money, jewelry, cultural capital, which she had in the form of education, familiarity with the law and knowhow about how the society worked. Social capital, basically who you know, she had a very extensive social network and she spent considerable effort sustaining it. and she could mobilize it when needed.

07:57 - And this is worth elaborating on because social networks don't often appear in historical narratives. She had a whole network of people who lent her money when she fell on hard times. And when she was flushed, she lent ven money 'cause these relations were reciprocal. An example of how she used her social networks comes from 1816 when a merchant sued her for not paying a debt. Well, it's clear that she owed him money,

08:23 - but she used her connections with the judges of the cia, the high court to get them to cancel the debt. Not a nice thing to do, but she got away with it. And another example of how she dealt with adversity comes from 1802 and involves a scandalous conflict with her first husband who was extremely jealous, violent, and abusive. She was definitely a battered wife. Now first he turned to priests to restrain him. What Steve Stern has called the pluralization of patriarchs,

08:55 - you use one male figure to counter another. But when he tried to kill her by firing his pistol in a fit of rage, it fortunately didn't go off. She went straight to the top, to the Viceroy who put him under house arrest, and she and her children left and moved in with a favorite uncle. When her husband was released, he sued, he retaliated by filing for an ecclesiastical divorce on the grounds of adultery. Now, divorce didn't exist in Mexico at the time,

09:25 - so this would've been a church authorized separation. Well, LA Hua didn't take that lying down. She got excellent defense lawyers and leading citizens to testify in her behalf. And a few months later, her husband dropped the suit because he couldn't prove anything and they reunited and had another child. Now, whether she went back to him because of the stigma attached to, a formal separation or because she loved him, we don't know.

09:56 - But evidently, she knew how to use the law and her social networks to her advantage. And over and over again, she showed remarkable resourcefulness and resilience. She was hardly a defensive, defenseless, shrinking violet. Let me give you an example of how her life helps us understand larger issues of political and economic history. The standard narratives

10:21 - of Mexican history portrayed the independence movement as a glorious process where all the good guys supported independence from the start, 1810, and where everything was better after Mexico achieved nationhood in 1821. But her experience was much more complicated. She didn't support Independences at first until quite late in the game. In fact, instead she was part of the Creole group that after Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808

10:48 - wanted local self-government, but always as a part of greater Spain, something like Canada, within the British Commonwealth. And this is what motivated the intrigue that got her in trouble in 1809 when she tried to undermine the rival faction who oppose this plan. And she was banished from Mexico City for two months, according to the authorities as a warning to the powerful s for spreading rumors that agitated blo the people and threatened to disturb public order.

11:25 - So authorities recognized that she exerted some political influence through the gift of Gab, which was one of her great talents evidently, and that this influence went beyond her social circle. But it's important to note that the intrigue wasn't in support of Mexican independence. In fact, it occurred a full year before the Igo revolt broke out. It had nothing to do with it, although later narrators changed the date

11:54 - of her banishment made it after the algo revolt rather than before, and used this incident to claim that she was an independent heroine. But on the contrary, after she returned to Mexico City in 1810, she avoided doing anything that could result in another punishment. She didn't support the rebels. In fact, I found a letter in which she called them the enemy.

12:16 - And it's true that at one point she gave the insurgent some money because they had occupied her CIE and were requiring payment in order to protect them. But it wasn't a voluntary contribution, and it was quite small. So she doesn't deserve to be considered an independence heroin. In fact, this was a very difficult time for her, a time of crisis and uncertainty, which she navigated by trying to stay friendly with people on all sides

12:43 - of the political spectrum and working to protect her family's patrimony above all else. It was also a difficult time because the wars brought her economic hardship. When the rebels occupied her most valuable properties, she lost her main source of income. And after independence, though, she got the properties back. They were in such disrepair that she had to sell them for pittance. And she struggled to maintain her standard of living

13:10 - and experience that complicates that triumphal official narrative and wasn't the story that future generations would want to tell. Now, turning to the stories that they did tell historical memory, I think her life was so interesting that it didn't need to be fictionalized. But over time, it was, and she stray further and further away from the real woman who lived two centuries ago. And let me give you a few versions of Laira

13:42 - that appeared long after her death. First, at the beginning of the 20th century, one of her descendants wrote three books about his distinguished family and included her as a beautiful vivacious enc chanting, but very proper lady in his telling. She hosted soiree that gathered the luminaries of the day, but she never influenced historical events because that wasn't considered appropriate for women when he was writing.

14:10 - And of course, she never had affairs with anyone or was involved in marital conflicts, but she was very rich, although we know that she really wasn't as wealthy as he said, her properties were mortgaged to the hilt and she often struggled to make ends meet. So he was using her to glorify his family history, leaving out what wasn't, going to help this story and embellishing it quite a bit. Now, by the middle of the 20th century, attitudes toward women were changing.

14:40 - It was okay for women to be involved in politics. And so in 1949, art published a historical novel entirely about her title La Rodriguez, that made her famous and created most of the myths that have since been repeated over and over again. It's a beautifully written, sometimes raunchy novel that became a bestseller, and it emphasized her supposed romantic liaisons, and her political activities.

15:11 - Now, tifi did include some references to documents that he had read because he dabbled in historical research, but most of it was fantasy. Why did he make up so much of her story? For one thing, he had so few facts about her that he filled in the gaps with his imagination. And, theta that he invented served his lifelong project of instilling national pride. He gave Mexico the most beautiful and brilliant woman in the Americas, as he put it.

15:43 - And he used her as the central figure to tell the very complicated and sometimes stuffy to story, of the independence period in an entertaining way to a newly expanded reading public at a time when Mexico was proudly modernizing. His exemplary patriot was a modern woman who defied social norms while she pursued happiness for herself and independence for the nation. Yet this was 1949, and by then SBE was an old man

16:16 - and he wasn't really comfortable with a power, autonomy and, unbridled sexuality of his protagonist. So his wayer exerted influence from behind the scenes by manipulating the men who made history. In fact, her politics were presented as an extension of her love life, and he gave his book a traditional ending. Once independence was achieved, she married her third husband who tamed her flame, and she ended her days as a proper woman should devoted to home and church.

16:52 - So his did not represent female liberation or threatened patriarchy. But that would change with the advent of the feminist movement in Mexico in the 1970s as a new generation searched the past for women who made history, they found Lata mostly by reading, by Yeti's book, which many people thought was a real, a reliable biography. And in retelling her story, they dropped the last part where she turned to domesticity and faith

17:21 - and instead emphasized her alleged glamor, sensuality, bravery, rebelliousness, political commitment, and so on. And new falsehoods began to emerge and then get repeated. For example, now she left her first husband for good because a strong independent woman would never return to such a jealous and abusive man, right? Wrong. And some authors used her to criticize Mexican sexism. So a 2005 novel makes her a wise woman who constantly offers the protagonist excellent advice.

17:58 - But the author states that Mexico would have had a much happier history if she had been in charge instead of being forced to operate through incompetent men. As he put it, Mexico would've been better off if he threw be they had been the woman and she the man. So in this text, she never became the heroine. Mexico needed because of the sexism that constrained her. Of course, other texts did make her one of the leading heroines of the independent struggle,

18:27 - the most politically powerful woman in the entire history of Mexico, according to one, really. So in tracing her journey from obscurity to fame, we can see her change from a proper aristocratic lady to a naughty patriot. Finally, tam by a man to a wise woman, a feminist, and a fully liberated political actor. Yet she never lost her reputation as a fem fatal. One blog even described her as one of the most famous prostitutes in history.

19:03 - But whether they celebrated her sexuality or condemned it, all these narratives sexualized her, which is a very common way that women are represented or misrepresented in history. So what lessons can we draw from this study? Well, like what does afterlife clearly shows that historical memory is not the same as history. Over time, the stories that began as rumor or fictional anecdotes became accepted fact. And then as now, the more sensational the falsehood,

19:38 - the faster and farther it spread, especially if it confirmed the public's gendered stereotypes or fueled their fantasies and fit into the stories that they wanted to tell about the past. So they created the RA that they would have liked to have lived in the past. In other words, these falsehoods get repeated because people want to believe them. A problem that we see in social media today

20:06 - when fake facts spread with even more astonishing speed, Lara's journey also shows that historical memory is never definitive and final because the stories we tell about the past are constantly being reworked to fit the present, reflecting our changing ideas about gender and politics and nation. And finally analyzing her journey from history to myth reminds us that we need to evaluate historical narratives or anything else we read

20:36 - or see on YouTube to separate fact from fiction. We need to ask who created text when on the basis of what sources for what purpose and how Could this shape their presentation? Otherwise, we're a fair game for being taken in by false facts and apocryphal stories, and we historians have to be careful not to let our wishes and fantasies distort what we see in the past.

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